Political Assassination and Social Movement Outcomes: Martin Luther King and the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike

Abstract

Despite a growing literature on social movement leadership, few studies consider how assassination shapes movement trajectories. Using event structure analysis, this study examines whether and how the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. propelled the struggling Sanitation Workers’ Campaign to success. It finds that King’s assassination can be understood as a “turning point” in the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and distills four mechanisms connecting King’s assassination to the strike’s ultimate outcome: the assassination precipitated some repressive local policies while diminishing others; evoked moral outrage, further mobilizing sympathetic third parties and enhancing external resources; intensified economic and reputational concerns, provoking pressure from the local business community on local political authorities; and provided access to federal resources, enabling local political actors to “save face.” These findings extend previous research on assassinations’ outcomes, finding that external factors are, indeed, salient, significantly shaping movement trajectories in the aftermath of political assassinations of charismatic leaders.